23G 
PHARMACOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS. 
By Professors Renault and Bouley, Alfort . 
Mercurial Ointment. 
In trying, during the past year, the effect of mercury, and its 
different preparations, on the horse, we have obtained a singular 
result, namely, that of drying up the purulent secretions. If 
frictions are made with mercurial ointment, to the amount of fifty 
or sixty drachms per day, on a horse that has a seton or suppu- 
rating wound, in the space of three or four days, varying with 
the constitution of the animal, the influence of the mercury is 
evident in the modifications which the suppurating surfaces un- 
dergo. The granulations take on a grey leaden tint, or some- 
times become completely black. The pus secreted is very much 
diminished in quantity — it becomes more fluid, and exhales a 
characteristic foetid odour somewhat resembling that from sali- 
vary abscesses. After a while, when the mercurial intoxication 
is complete, the suppuration entirely ceases, but not until long 
after the medicament has ceased to be employed. 
We have experimented with this property of mercury on a great 
number of horses affected with suppurating wounds, and have 
constantly obtained the same results. Among others, we would 
refer to a horse with fistulous withers with very great suppura- 
tion. When the mercurial saturation was obtained, the wound 
completely dried up ; farcy-cords appeared on the surface of the 
body, and glanders evidently declared itself. 
This property of mercury being recognized, we applied it as a 
therapeutic agent. We often dried up chronic discharges from 
the nasal cavities, by the employment, during several continuous 
days, of frictions of mercurial ointment, varying from thirty to 
sixty grains. 
This mercurial saturation has been demonstrated in certain 
animals by a very curious phenomenon. In proportion as the 
discharge has diminished, the expired air has become so foetid 
that we could almost fancy the existence of ozena. This stench, 
however, disappeared soon after the cessation of the employ- 
ment of the mercurial agent. 
We thought that it would be curious to trace the effects of 
this property of mercury on horses labouring under chronic glan- 
ders. In some of them the discharge completely disappeared, 
but only to return some days afterwards. In other cases, glanders 
took on a more acute form. The chancres were enlarged, and the 
